The Chicken Soup of my life

(I am going to attach two videos here)

Long, long before I even give Christianity a second look, I had been reading The Chicken Soup series. I tell you, I never like the ‘conventional Christians’ who are so eager to spread their religion. They not only freaked me out, they made me so fearful of even talking to them.

But I love the Chicken Soup for the Souls series. At one time, when I was taking care of my son in ICU, I bought the Chicken Soup for the Nurses’ souls to better understand the nurses. Then, I also have the Chicken Soup for the Surviving Souls when my son was dying as it is about surviving cancer and other life threatening diseases.

I gave those books away after I closed the chapter of my fourth son, Vincent. (just in case..he died in 2002 at 7 mths old due to prematurity related problems)

Then, there was another time when I think I could write. That was long before I was a blogger. So, I bought Chicken Soup for the Writers’ Souls. And I did have many articles published by the papers and women and parenting magazines.

But that excitement soon wanes. I am the kind of person who get bored once I achieved what I wanted to do. I don’t aim to be the best in anything. I get my satisfaction of doing my best and prove to myself I can.

It was many years after all those Chicken Soup series that I noticed those are stories about the Christian faith. Funny rite? It was like I was blind and failed to notice until I finally accepted Jesus Christ. And Epiphany of sorts.

And you know what? I had stopped reading any Chicken Soup stories after I turned to Christianity. I suppose I have enough soup in my pot. I don’t need the struggles of another to uplift me because I had my own pot of bitter soup to carry me through most things. And with Jesus’s sacrifice, what other reminder do I need, huh?

So, today is one of those day that I can say to myself, “Lilian, wow, look what you have done!”

From the above video, I wrote an article for UCAN. Then, Herald took the article. After that Malaysia-Today used it. Though my name is not there, I am still proud that I could string together an issue that makes people think and talk.

I could only do it because some years back, our new parish priest Father Fabian talked at length about the sin of being silent and passive. He has influenced a lot of the things I am doing today. Many of us Christians used to like to stay silent and think things will turn out alright if we just stay on the sideline and pray.

But that’s not how Jesus Christ lived when He was the Son of Man, walking on earth like one of us humans. He challenged many authorities, getting punished and died because of those wrongs that He tried to set right.

One religious leader told me I am very brave because I have reported many things that were not previously seen or shown publicly. I told him I was just at the right place at the right time, meeting the right people.